4 Important Things to Do After Your Product Launch

There is seemingly a LOT of information out on the Internet about what to do before and during a product launch, which is pretty helpful when you are embarking on selling your first product. One area that doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention, however, is what happens immediately after the launch.

No, I’m not talking just about how to drum up sales after that initial excitement has burned out, although I will cover that towards the end.

What I wanted to share was a bit of the post launch experience, and things that you will need to watch out and make time for once your product goes live.

My Product Launch in a Nutshell

First, I will give you a quick summary of what the launch of my first eBook, Blog Post Promotion: The Ultimate Guide, actually entailed. i wouldn’t call this a full proof product launch plan by any means, but for someone with a little less time on their hands, it certainly got the job done.

Finished the eBook, a six month labor of love!

Created an initial sales page plus mailing list opt-in placeholder.

Sponsored a blogging contest which caters directly towards an audience that would benefit greatly from the strategies in my eBook.

Sent out six review copies and received an equal number of testimonials.

Created an affiliates page with specific instructions on how to join the affiliate program and some standard size graphics.

Wrote a post to build some hype and sent out an announcement on my mailing list twenty four hours before the launch.

Began full on promotion of the launch day post using instant messenger contacts, social media, social bookmarking, blog commenting, and guest blogging.

Wrote a awesome reviews post two days after the launch with a compilation of the initial responses for the eBook from other bloggers and via Twitter.

Like I said, not the textbook launch plan, but all in all it still had some great results! Now, let’s take a look at some important things to consider after the product launch.

After the Product Launch

Do you know what is the first thing you should after you launch a product? Actually, it’s something I should have thought to do right before, but I instead did it the following day.

Monitor Your Product Across Social Channels

If you launch a product, you will want to make sure you know what people are saying about it. The best way to monitor this kind of information is via two free tools. The first is Google Alerts which you can setup to send you an email anytime your product is mention practically anywhere online.

It works particularly well for finding new review posts about your product.

The second tool is Social Mention, which will find similar information and email you about it as frequently as you choose.

Between the two of them, you shouldn’t miss out on very many mentions of your product in blog posts, video text, social bookmarking sites, or social media in general.

Commenting, Commenting, and Commenting

Once the reviews of my eBook started rolling in, I took the time to do some commenting. Not just the standard “thanks for writing this awesome review,” but going beyond that to actually providing a little customer service (or pre-sales) within the comments of those posts by replying when needed.

I would also suggest subscribing to comments when you add yours if the option is available. That way you can keep any eye on any future comments so you can go back to respond to those as well.

Depending on the number of reviews you get, this may not always be an option, but I think it goes to show people how important their needs are and might go a long way to building trust while increasing sales.

Replies, Replies, and Replies

Hand in hand with commenting on review posts is replying to mentions of your product on social media. I try to thank people who tweet that they’ve bought the book, or retweet their commentary to their followers (which includes sharing their affiliate links). I also found that customer service issues can arise off of your own social properties.

For example, one buyer had some trouble with the E-Junkie system, but instead of commenting on my Facebook fan page or personal profile, she commented on someone else’s wall post about my book. Fortunately, because I had thanked that person for sharing the news about my eBook, I was alerted to new comments on that post and found her issue. I emailed her privately, and within an hour we had sorted things out and she was able to successfully purchase my eBook.

Support Your Affiliates

You know you have to provide customer service to your buyers to make sure they are happy with their purchase. But you also have to support your affiliates as well. The faster you can address their needs and concerns, the sooner they can start promoting your product. Within a few minutes of helping one affiliate with the E-Junkie system, he sent a newsletter out to his subscribers and me his first referral sale.

Sales After the Launch

For the most part, sales are going to be strongest after the initial product launch, assuming you’ve done a good job of building the hype for your product. It probably gets a little depressing when you see your numbers start dipping. But there is no reason to fear if you have a good plan to keep upping the exposure of your product after the intial burst has ended. So far, my post-launch plan for keeping the exposure about my eBook on a steady path includes:

Creating a nice sales area at the bottom of all my blog posts. A lot of sites, my own included, usually have a pitch for an affiliate product at the end of every post. I have replaced a less profitable affiliate program with my own eBook. Just scroll down to see what I mean.

Continuing to reach out for reviews. Sure I will continue getting the ones from the people who have bought my eBook, but if I see a promising affiliate who has the potential to bring some serious referral sales, it doesn’t hurt to offer them a review copy to keep the talk going.

Providing interviews. A lot of people normally do this earlier so that their interviews happen during the launch week of the product. I’m going to see what happens when these interviews start popping up after the initial hype burst has decreased a bit to see if it builds it up again.

Continuing to promote my eBook via guest blogging. Similar to one of the strategies I discuss in my eBook, I am going to write guest posts that will attract the kind of audience who would naturally want to read my eBook upon consuming the information shared in the guest post.

Offering new discounts. The end of the introductory price doesn’t necessarily have to mean the end of discounts. I am offering new mailing list subscribers a discount code for 20% off as a way to encourage new purchases with each new subscriber I gain. It’s an incentive to subscribe and an incentive to buy all rolled into one.

Your Post-Product Launch Plan

So there you have it – everything that I find important to consider about the post-launch process. What other things am I missing, and what advice would you give to someone who is about to find themselves in the after product launch aftermath? Please share your tips in the comments!

About Kristi Hines

Comments

Great and interesting insight into a typical online product launch. I would also add a banner or clearly visible link to your the new product in the upper half of the website, so that people can follow this link if they just browse through but are not interested in the particular article.

Kristi, I’ve watched this launch carefully as a subscriber to your newsletter, as a reader of this blog, and also as a purchaser of your e-book. You’ve laid out an excellent blueprint for others to follow.

It is very important to promote your recently launched product as much as possible. Indeed, monitorizing your success and progress is very important, also, creating campaigns with Google AdWords is a great thing and smart move to do too, but you must target your visitors as good as possible. Thanks for sharing this, very interesting article and I must admit it, a lot of things I’ve learned that I didn’t knew until reading this, thanks!

Definitely learned a ton from it! I don’t think everyone is going to be able to go all out on their own launch, so I thought I’d share this so they could see what the bare minimum was (and that it works).

You mentioned switching out less profitable affiliate advertising with promoting your own e-book, and that makes sense to me. I’m actually thinking of doing something similar myself – except promoting my consulting instead of an e-book.TJ McDowell just posted Canon 70-200 28 IS II With Original 5D

I’ve been watching you work your magic here in the last few weeks and seen it spreading outward, just like good networking is supposed to do! Like Lorna Li, I will also be following in your footsteps as I prepare for my own launch. Right now it’s just building my web presence and building traffic to my blog, but as time and the baby permit, my ebook will be completed and then I can apply what I learn here, too.

Congratulations with your ebook launch! From what I’ve seen others write about your book on their blogs, it’s going awesomely!

Thanks Delena! Like I mentioned to Lorna, this isn’t anything near a full guide to what you can do for a product launch. I would actually suggest you start the hype building a lot sooner than I did especially. That way people are mentally ready for the product to come out and are ready to buy it when it does. 🙂

Kristi, I am so impressed with your work. You certainly deserve great success! I have always admired your dedication and skills in writing quality, captivating and also useful content, and you keep taking it to new levels! Congratulations on the ebook, I hope you will do very well!Adrenalynn just posted 5 things that make me feel good

That’s a lot of work Kristi! And I’ve noticed that as well, I saw your comments on Weblogbetter and Ari Herzog’s blog. Been thinking of launching my own product as well this year, good thing I ran across this post after reading Kiesha’s review about your product. Will do keep these tips in mind. Google Alerts is definitely a great idea in monitoring brand mentions (we’ve been doing that recently on Affilorama).Jason Acidre just posted Choosing the Right Program

It was a good bit of work, and is still on-going but rewarding at the same time. I use Google Alerts for my name, blog name, and now the eBook. I really think everyone should do this because you want to really be first on the scene if anything is said about you, good, bad or otherwise.

Hmm, good question Dennis. I don’t know that I’ve had any set criteria. I think less than half of the reviews I’ve received were from people I actually sent a copy to – most have been from people who purchased and then decided to do the review on their own, which is pretty awesome. 🙂

Kristi,
Your product launching tips are really good enough and you are a good marketer too as I have read about your book “The Ultimate Blog Post Promotion Guide” on several well reputed blogs and across Social Media.
Best Wishesnazimwarriach just posted Hostgator Coupon Code

I’ve use Google Alerts but I’ve found that a lot of the time it notifies me of of mentions of my terns that were completely inaccurate. Bit of a pain that.

You are right though one also has to provide support for customers and affiliates the first because they’ve bought the product and the second because they are promoting it. One has to remember to always answer their needs without blowing your cool if they sometimes seem a little negative.Sire just posted Do You Know Who Is Really Commenting On Your Blog

I totally agree. A prompt response usually takes care of the trick and making sure you get alerts and reminders help keep me from going back and forth just to make sure I’m not overlooking anyone. Great post. Detailed and very much to the point.Andrew just posted One Of The Most Important Functions You Can Add To Your Blog

Monitoring on social media shouldn’t be enough, Kristi 🙂 People also talk about your product in forums and the best way to monitor those forum threads is to go to omgili.com. They provide exclusive tool to search for a thread contain your search keywords. Try it out 🙂Mike just posted keyword ranking

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Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Founder Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and professional blogger.

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